In the wake of South Carolina’s biggest and most serious cyber theft of private data, House Speaker Bobby Harrell launched an official Legislative Investigation to find answers. He appointed a bi-partisan committee charged with finding answers and proposing solutions. The committee will be chaired by Majority Leader Bruce Bannister, and Minority Leader Harry Ott will be the vice-chairman.
The hacking incident has been a major issue with our constituents across the state, and our goal is to re-instill public trust in our state government. Governor Haley has worked with swift action directing her Cabinet agencies to work with federal authorities in addressing the immediate fallout of this security breach, but an independent outside investigation is needed to answer many of the questions moving forward.
This was an amazingly disturbing incident and every South Carolinian is entitled to answers and assurances that a solution is being sought. The people of our state have no choice but to offer up this personal information when filing taxes with the Department of Revenue, so it is the government’s responsibility to protect that information adequately.
The Republicans on this committee include Bannister, Rep. Shannon Erickson of Beaufort, Rep. Dwight Loftis of Greenville, Rep. Jim Merrill of Daniel Island, Rep. Andy Patrick of Hilton Head, and Assistant Majority Leader Gary Simrill of Rock Hill.
The Speaker has charged the committee with issuing a full public report to the General Assembly detailing the breakdown in agency security measures that allowed the data theft to occur. According to the Speaker’s Office: “The Committee shall have the ability to request any necessary information, interview experts and take witnesses testimony to uncover exactly how the infiltration occurred and to determine if proper security measures were followed.”